DESIGNING A RESTAURANT: ISMS math students engage in architecture project

December 22, 2011

By

Robin R. Plasterer

COLUMBIA CITY â€” Math students at Indiana Springs Middle School planned, designed and presented an architectural project called Restaurant Possible this week. The program is loosely-based on the popular Food Channel show â€śRestaurant Impossible.â€ť
Math teachers Jill Baker and Cathy Rowe wanted to teach math content that included dimensions and scale.
The project culminated with a scale floor plan including the kitchen, rest rooms, waiting areas and an eating area.
First the students watched a clip from Restaurant Impossible, where a team goes into a struggling restaurant and with a budget of $10,000, redoes the restaurant to make it a viable business again.
Next the students received a letter from â€śJane Smithâ€ť of â€śRestaurant Internation-alâ€ť of Indianapolis. Although Smith and her company are fictitious, the students bit on the letter requesting them to compete to design the restaurant that a company is planning to build in Columbia City.
â€śWe wanted to utilize some design technology in addition to having the students create their floor plans with a pencil and graph paper. We searched on the internet and found some design software for floor plans,â€ť said Rowe.